Prehistoric Ages. Categories of Time. Eons and Eras Prehistoric / Archaeological Periods The Stone Age Archaeologists and historians place the Stone Age as that period of human development when most of the tools used by human beings were made from stone. The evidence available to us currently shows that while the this phase of early human development took place in different parts of the globe, the dates for the Stone Age was different for different parts of the world. It varies depending on the dates assigned to stone implements discovered in a region. As a consequence, dates for the Stone Age have changed with every discovery and the development of dating methods. There is evidence of stone implements having been used in Africa as early as 2.5 million years ago, 1.8 million years ago in Asia, and a million years ago in Europe. Therefore, current theory places the earliest development of human beings in Africa. During the Stone Age of human development, the earth also experienced an Ice Age some 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago. The Stone Age in an area ends with evidence of the earliest known metal implements, and generally ends between 6,000 and 4,000 BCE.

The Stone Age is further divided into: • Palaeolithic Age (Old Stone Age - 2.5 million to 15,000 years ago - a time period that spans 95% of human history): the age in which stone tools were chipped or flaked. (see the page on Anghilak cave, Uzbekistan ) • Mesolithic Age (Middle Stone Age, also called the Epipaleolithic Age - 15,000 to 10,000 years ago): the age in which microliths, small, geometric-shaped stone artefacts were attached to wood, antler, or bone to form implements such as arrows, spears, or scythes. • Neolithic Age (New Stone Age - 10,000 to 6,000-4,000 years ago): the age in which ground and polished stone axes became prevalent. Metal Age The Metal Age starts when human beings began to use metal to make tools. For archaeologists, the transition from the stone to the metal age occurs when these metal tools appear alongside stone tools.

The type of metal used initially was probably influenced by the surface availability of the metal in natural form, and appears to have been either gold or copper, both being softer, lower melting point metals. A lower melting point was probably critical since the development of metallurgy closely paralleled the ability to produce hotter fires as well as the development of containers to hold and cast the melted metal. The use of gold may even have started with the mechanical shaping of the metal, first in cold form, then heated and softened, and finally melted and cast. Golden Age Aryan and Saka legends place the use of gold before the use of copper - possibly a few thousand years earlier. Gold was the more readily available metal in Central Asia. The legends of Ferdowsi state that gold was used in ancient times to make surgical knives used to perform Caesarean operations. Most of the ancient gold artefacts were plundered, smelted and reused. The unearthing of gold artefacts that predated copper tools, requires finding sites that were hidden or otherwise inaccessible to robbers. We will have to await archaeological evidence to support the legendary evidence that the use of gold preceded the use of copper.

Copper (Chalcolithic, Eneolithic or ï¿½neolithic) Age The Copper Age in Central Asia and the rest of the Aryan lands is currently said to begin in the late 5th millennium BCE and lasted for about a millennium (4,300-3,200 BCE) leading in to the Early Bronze Age. Transition from the European Copper Age to the Bronze Age occurs about a millennium later - between the late 4th and the late 3rd millennia BCE. The use of copper required the development of metallurgy - the science of extracting metal from metal ores - and casting the molten metal in castings. Bronze Age Bronze Seal from Anau (Turkmenistan) with unknown markings Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin that is more hard than either pure copper or tin. In addition, bronze has a lower melting point than copper or tin making it easier to form into finished shapes by moulding, casting, or machining. While a harder metal, bronze still did not break easily under stress and was corrosion resistant. Bronze was better suited for weapons and tools than either copper or tin. The manufacture of bronze required the development of alloy-making technology.

Current reports suggest that the Bronze Age in Central Asia extended from about 3,300 to 1,300 BCE. Iron Age With the ability to create higher smelting temperatures came the ability to extract and work with iron, a metal that was in earlier ages considered more precious than gold. Simple iron mixed with some residual slag (the residue when iron is extracted from its ore) is called wrought iron - the earliest form of iron. Wrought iron is weaker than bronze, but because iron was more readily available than copper or tin, wrought iron was less complicated to manufacture than bronze. It was also more easily sharpened than bronze. Wrought iron was eventually replaced by steel - iron with between 0.02% and 1.7% of carbon. Steel weapons and tools were about the same weight as those of bronze, but stronger. The Iron Age in Central Asia is estimated to have extended from about 1,300 to 900 BCE. Categories of Time The broad categories of time are: Cosmological Period The Cosmological Period consists of time periods in the origin and evolution of the universe.

According to current scientific theory the Cosmological Period begins with the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago and ends with the formation of the earth 4.5 billion years ago. Geological Period The Geological period consists of time periods in the origin and evolution of earth. The earth is about 4.5 billion years old. The time from the origin of the earth to the present is divided into super eons, eons, eras and periods. The Precambrian period is a super eon that is sub-divided into three eons: • the Hadean Eon (4.5 to 3.8 billion years before present), • the Archean Eon (3.8 to 2.5 billion years before present),, and • the Proterozoic Eon (2.5 billion to 570 million years before present) millions of years Subdivisions of the Cenozoic Era (65 million years before present to the present) Prehistoric (Archaeological) & Historic Periods The Prehistoric Period consists of time periods in the origin and evolution of humankind from about 2.5 million years to about 900 BCE.

the Prehistoric Period is divided into the Archaeological Periods of the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The Historic Period records the activities of humankind from about 900 BCE or from that time when records are available or can re reconstructed. The Historic Period overlaps with the Prehistoric Periods such as the Iron Age when it is possible to reconstruct timelines of a people's history. • ï¿½ Author: K. E. Eduljee, Zoroastrian Heritage , 2005-14 (researched from 1979 onwards) • Contact • Page validated by W3C.org BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: Bronze Age Britain Print this page Introduction The beginning of the Bronze Age in Britain can be put around 2,000 BC. Although not certain, it is generally thought that the new bronze tools and weapons identified with this age were brought over from continental Europe. The skulls recovered from burial sites from the Bronze Age are different in shape from Stone Age skulls. This would suggest that new ideas and new blood were brought over from the continent. Stone and bronze can be used together, subject to the availability of both materials.

True bronze is a combination of 10% tin and 90% copper. Both materials were readily available in Britain at this time. Before its entry into Britain, the Bronze Age was in full swing in Europe.The island of Crete was centre for the expansion of the bronze trade to Europe. The Mycenaeans created the finest bronze weapons. They came from southern Russia at around 2,000 BC, and settled in the lowlands of Greece. There they began to trade with the Minoans. They built a large navy, and began to attack nearby lands. Over time they adapted to the Minoan way of life, and eventually, around 1,400 BC, became the major power in the Aegean Sea. Top The Beaker people The Bronze Age © It is widely thought, although not certain, that bronze was first brought over to Britain by the Bell Beaker folk. They were so named because of their distinctive bell-shaped pottery drinking vessels. They probably came up through the south-west coast of Britain, which at the time had rich deposits of copper and tin.

The Bell Beaker folk readily mixed with any new culture they encountered, including the Neolithic farmers they found in Britain, and Bell beakers have been found in megalithic tombs, with the henge temples of the Neolithics. They improved the existing temple at Stonehenge, which is proof that they got on well with the original inhabitants, and at Avebury they made another great henge monument. This is a large circular ditch and bank, and within it was a ring of standing stones - although these have now gone. Nearby, at Silbury Hill, stands the largest man-made mound in prehistoric Britain, again thought to have been made by the Beaker people. No burial has been found inside it. The emergence of the Beaker people in Britain gave rise to what is now termed the Wessex Culture. This is the name given to a number of very rich grave goods under round barrows in southern Britain. The grave goods include well made stone battle axes, metal daggers with elaborately decorated hilts, and precious ornaments of gold and amber - these are some of the loveliest prehistoric objects ever to be found in Britain.

Among the golden cups found in the graves, some were found that were so like those of the Mycenae that they are used as examples to prove the existence of trade between Wessex and Greece. Top Later Bronze Age Textile production had also got under way by this time. Women would wear long woollen skirts and short tunics. The men wore knee-length wrap-around skirts, or kilt-like woollens, as well as tunics, cloaks and even one-piece garments. They were also clean-shaven, long-haired and wore round woollen hats. The standard farming household consisted of two houses, a main living house and an out-house for cooking and textile production. The dead were cremated, and buried in small cemeteries behind each settlement. The large burial sites of the early Bronze Age were a thing of the past, as the land was now needed for agriculture. The late Bronze Age was also signatured by advanced pottery-making techniques, and more sophisticated weapon-making. The Iron Age that followed it did not happen suddenly, but is thought to have started in Britain around 650 BC and finished around AD 43.

Again, the knowledge of iron-making was brought to Britain by Europeans, who had already started to build the first blast furnaces. To sum up, the period of Bronze Age man lasted for almost 1,500 years, a time that took the giant step from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages | Essential Humanities ca. 1000 BC-present Prehistoric Climate Throughout its history, the Earth has cycled between cold glacial periods (during which large masses of ice, known as glaciers, cover much of the world's land area) and warm interglacial periods (which lack widespread glaciers). Humans have lived through many such cycles, which take place over thousands of years. While glacial periods made survival more difficult, they also lowered the sea level, easing human colonization of the world. We currently live in an interglacial period, which began ca. 10,000 BC. Pre-human Evolution About 14 billion years ago, the Big Bang gave birth to a universe containing pockets of dust.

About 4.5 billion years ago, our solar system (the sun and its planets) formed via the accretion of dust into spheres; Earth is therefore roughly 4.5 billion years old. Life began about 3.5 billion years ago, with the appearance of single-celled marine organisms; since then, evolution has continuously given rise to new forms of life.53,54,55 Eventually, multicellular organisms developed. Increasingly large and complex types of multicellular life emerged, with one branch of evolution leading to fish. Fish are the original vertebrates (animals with a backbone) and the ancestors of all other vertebrate groups. The Five Major Groups of Vertebrates tetrapod mammals live birth Vertebrates made the transition to land-based life when fish evolved into amphibians: cold-blooded tetrapods that lay aquatic eggs. The term cold-blooded denotes that a creature's internal temperature is determined by its environment (in contrast to warm-blooded creatures, whose bodies maintain an internal temperature independent of their environment). A tetrapod is a creature with four limbs; a limb is a jointed appendage that extends from an animal's body. An aquatic egg is laid in water, and thus lacks a hard shell.

Amphibians evolved into reptiles, which lay hard-shelled eggs. Consequently, reptiles were the first vertebrates that could live their entire lives on dry land. The final two major vertebrate groups, birds and mammals, evolved from reptiles. Some mammals came to abandon a ground-based life, evolving to swing among the trees. This lifestyle encouraged the development of hands with dextrous fingers and opposable thumbs (for grasping branches), as well as sharp colour eyesight (for navigating the complex, multicoloured, shadowy environment of the forest).A3 Sub-Saharan Africa was one region where tree-dwelling mammals thrived. One day, a species of Sub-Saharan tree-dwelling mammal returned to a ground-based life, leaving the forests behind for open grassland. This animal subsequently evolved to walk upright (rather than on all fours), allowing it to see much farther across the plains. (Animals that walk upright are referred to as bipedal .) When these bipedal mammals started to develop larger brains, they evolved into a remarkable new creature: human. Main Article Paleolithic Age The term human denotes any creature belonging to the genus Homo.

The first species of human was Homo habilis , which evolved in Sub-Saharan Africa ca. 2,500,000 BC. Since Homo habilis was a maker of stone tools, the evolution of this species marks the beginning of the stone age.56 The stone age can be divided into the Paleolithic ("Old Stone Age"), during which all humans were hunter-gatherers; the Mesolithic ("Middle Stone Age"), the transitional phase to agricultural life; and the Neolithic ("New Stone Age"), when humans subsisted through agriculture. The Paleolithic, which spans over ninety percent of human existence, can be further divided into three parts. The Lower Paleolithic was the age of human evolution. Various species of Homo emerged, with a trend toward increasing brain and body size.43 The evolution of modern humans, Homo sapiens , finally took place ca. 200,000 BC, in Sub-Saharan Africa.12 To recap: the Lower Paleolithic period began with the evolution of Homo habilis (the first human species) and concluded with the evolution of Homo sapiens.

The latter species was anatomically the same as present-day humans, including (most importantly) brain size.56 Phases of the Paleolithic Upper Paleolithic behaviourally modern The next giant leap for our species was behavioural modernity (aka "modern behaviour"), which emerged ca. 50,000 BC. Humans of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic exhibited primitive behaviour; though they could make simple stone tools and eventually came to control fire, these humans did not behave much differently than the rest of the animal kingdom. The contrast between humans and animals only became sharp with the onset of modern behaviour.4,56 Behavioural modernity can be boiled down to two major features: complex ideas and creativity. The consequences of behavioural modernity include government, religion, art, and technology.4,56 As noted above, various species of human evolved in Sub-Saharan Africa prior to the evolution of modern humans. Some of these species migrated out of Africa, settling regions of Eurasia. All would eventually go extinct, however, leaving the world to be dominated by a single human species: Homo sapiens. Modern humans colonized most of the inhabitable world during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods.

The Americas were colonized by a great migration across the Bering land bridge, which connected Siberia and Alaska.2,22 Neolithic Age During the Paleolithic age, all humans were hunter-gatherers. They typically lived in small bands that followed an annual migration pattern, timing their movements according to ripening plants and travelling herds of game. Depending on food availability, these bands might be nomadic (constantly on the move) or semi-nomadic (migrating between temporary settlements).K30-31,18 Paleolithic life denotes a lifestyle based mainly on hunting/gathering, while Neolithic life denotes a lifestyle based mainly on agriculture (the production of food by raising domesticated crops and animals). A given region is considered to have progressed to the Neolithic age once agriculture has become the primary means of subsistence. Means of Subsistence hunting/gathering-based life (after ca. 10,000 BC) Neolithic life agriculture-based life Prior to reaching the Neolithic, humans experienced a transitional stage known as the Mesolithic. The transition to agricultural life commenced ca.

10,000 BC, when the most recent glacial period ended, giving rise to a warmer (and thus more farming-conducive) global climate. The beginning of the Mesolithic age is consequently placed at ca. 10,000 BC; the ending, however, varies by region. As noted earlier, hunting/gathering-based life is also known as Paleolithic life. This is only true up until ca. 10,000 BC, however; the continuation of hunting/gathering-based life beyond ca. 10,000 BC (in the new, warmer climate) is known as Mesolithic life. Phases of the Stone Age Lower Paleolithic Neolithic agricultural subsistence Over the final ten millennia BC (ca. 10,000 BC-0), most of the world transitioned to the Neolithic age. The unfolding of this transition can be mapped with very rough approximations for individual regions. For instance, Neolithic life was achieved in Mesopotamia ca. 10,000 BC; in Greece, ca. 7000 BC; in India, ca. 5000 BC; in Britain, ca.

3000 BC.4,18 Summary of the Spread of the Neolithic ca. 10,000-5000 BC agricultural life radiates from Mesopotamia, both westward (to Egypt and southern Europe) and eastward (to India) ca. 5000 BC-0 agricultural life continues to expand, covering most of the inhabited world As the above map illustrates, Neolithic life radiated from Mesopotamia, both across Eurasia and into North Africa. (It should be noted that while most of Eurasia adopted agriculture as it diffused from Mesopotamia, some regions may have developed agriculture independently.) The diffusion of agriculture to Sub-Saharan Africa, however, was frustrated by the vast Sahara Desert; across this region, agriculture-based life only emerged over the last two millennia BC.4,38,47 In the Americas, Neolithic life was first achieved in Mesoamerica and Peru, but not until ca. 2000 BC.

Thus, the rise of Neolithic life throughout the New World was (as in Sub-Saharan Africa) compressed into the final two millennia BC.4,44,46 Alternatives to Farming Some parts of the world forwent agriculture altogether. In these regions, one of two alternative subsistence methods was pursued. The first alternative was to continue with hunter-gatherer life indefinitely. This path was followed by Australia, much of Siberia, much of the Americas (the far north and south), and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Though hunter-gatherer societies have mostly disappeared in the modern age, a few small populations survive; perhaps most famous are the San people of Sub-Saharan Africa and tribes of the Amazon rainforest.K30-31,4 The second alternative was nomadic herding life. Nomadic herding is well-suited to arid regions, where rainfall is sufficient for grass but too scarce for productive farming; typical herd animals are sheep, goats, cattle, horses, camels (in the Islamic world), and reindeer (in Siberia).

Nomadic herding was especially successful in the Steppe (an east-west strip of grassland that runs from Ukraine to Mongolia).48 Like hunter-gatherer life, nomadic herding has been mostly (but not entirely) displaced by the modern age. The Eurasian Advantage As described above, the Neolithic age was achieved far earlier in Eurasia than elsewhere. Since Neolithic life was the crucial prerequisite to urbanization, Eurasia experienced the rise of cities thousands of years before the rest of the world. Consequently, Eurasia has given rise to most of the world's civilizations, including the four current "global civilizations": Western, Islamic, South Asian, and East Asian (see Global Civilizations ). The modern global political and cultural landscape has been shaped primarily by Eurasia and its colonial offshoots. Outside Eurasia, the Neolithic age was delayed for various reasons. One is sheer geographic isolation from Southwest Asia, the leading region of early technological progress. While advances in Southwest Asia were transmitted to Europe and Asia relatively quickly, they were blocked from spreading easily to Sub-Saharan Africa (by the Sahara Desert) and the Americas (by the oceans).

Eurasia was also blessed with an exceptional supply of domesticatable plants and animals, in terms of both quantity and quality of species.51 In this context, "quality" denotes usefulness for humans. High-quality domesticated plants are energy-rich and relatively easy to produce; high-quality domesticated animals also have these characteristics, as well as provision of labour and non-food animal products. The Eurasian advantage in domesticatable animals is particularly striking. Peoples across this region were blessed with goats, sheep, pigs, horses, and cattle (among others); notably, the latter two animals could be harnessed for heavy labour, including ploughing (which amplified farming production) and transportation. In fact, only fourteen large animal species (that is, animals in excess of 100 pounds) have ever been domesticated, and only one of these is native to a region outside Eurasia: the llama, in South America.51 Bronze and Iron Ages The Neolithic age was succeeded in Eurasia by the bronze age. In a given region, the bronze age is considered to begin when bronze becomes a much-used material for practical objects (i.e. tools and weapons).

The term "bronze age" is generally not applied if only a few bronze tools are being made, or if bronze is only being used for jewellery. The key prerequisite to the bronze age was the development of smelting (the process of extracting metal from ore). Once a sufficient volume of metal has been smelted, it can be hammered or cast (melted and poured into a mould) into a desired shape. Smelting technology first emerged in Southwest Asia.9 The first metal to be smelted was copper. Being a rather soft metal, copper was not a dramatic improvement over stone for the crafting of tools and weapons. It was eventually discovered, however, that by blending copper with tin, one obtains a much harder metal: bronze. (Occasionally, other elements were used instead of tin.)9,50 The bronze age of Southwest Asia spanned ca. 3000-1000 BC. Like agriculture, bronze technology radiated from Southwest Asia in all directions, taking roughly a thousand years to cover the entire east-west span of mainland Eurasia (from Britain to China). Thus, by ca.

2000 BC, most of Eurasia had transitioned to the bronze age.1,26,52 While the bronze age also diffused to North Africa, it was halted by the Sahara Desert. Bronze Age Transition Eurasia ca. 3000-2000 BC The iron age began in Southwest Asia ca. 1000 BC, once smelting pit designs had advanced sufficiently to produce the higher temperatures needed to smelt iron ore (see Iron Smelting ).9 In about five centuries, it covered the east-west span of Eurasia. Thus, by ca. 500 BC, most of Eurasia had transitioned to the iron age.27,28 The iron age also diffused across North Africa, and then (unlike the bronze age) southward across sub-Saharan Africa. It crossed the Sahara Desert by travelling down the Nile (through Egypt into Nubia), and may also have crossed at other points farther west. Diffusion was slower than in Eurasia; it took about a thousand years for the iron age to reach southern Africa.38,47 Iron Age Transition Africa ca.

1000 BC-0 It should be noted that the above descriptions of the spread of the bronze and iron ages are meant to convey the broad, overall picture. Most likely, these ages did not begin solely in Southwest Asia, but were arrived at independently (at later dates) in other regions as well. The transition to the iron age was critical not because of any property of the metal itself (iron is not harder than bronze), but rather because iron is overwhelmingly more abundant than copper and tin. This enabled, for the first time in history, true mass-production of metal tools and weapons. Both agriculture and warfare (to take two prominent examples) were thereby revolutionized, since metal implements are far more effective than stone in both endeavours. The bronze and iron ages have little relevance for the pre-colonial Americas. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the bronze age was reached only by the Inca (the final Andean civilization), while the iron age did not occur at all.7,33 Gold, silver, and copper were widely used in pre-colonial American art, however.49 1 - "Bronze Age", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009.

2 - "Paleolithic Period", Columbia Encyclopedia. Accessed April 2009. 3 - "Holocene Epoch", Columbia Encyclopedia. Accessed April 2009. 4 - "Stone Age (anthropology)", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009. 5 - "Olduvai Gorge (archaeological site, Tanzania)", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009. 6 - "Metallurgy", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009. 7 - "Bronze Age", Columbia Encyclopedia. Accessed April 2009. 8 - "Abundance of elements in Earth's crust", Wikipedia. Accessed April 2009. 9 - "Smelting (metallurgy)", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009. 10 - "Australopithecus (paleontology)", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009. 11 - "Human Evolution", Columbia Encyclopedia. Accessed April 2009. 12 - "Human Evolution", Encarta. Accessed April 2009. 13 - "Stone Age", Encarta.

Accessed April 2009. 14 - "Paleolithic Period (anthropology)", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009. 15 - "Origins of agriculture", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009. 16 - "Civilization", Columbia Encyclopedia. Accessed April 2009. 17 - "Wrought Iron (metallurgy)", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009. 18 - "Neolithic Period", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009. 19 - "Bronze (alloy)", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009. 20 - "Pleistocene Epoch", Columbia Encyclopedia. Accessed April 2009. 21 - "Iron Age", Columbia Encyclopedia. Accessed April 2009. 22 - "First Americans: Clovis-First Theory: Rapid Migration", Encarta. Accessed April 2009. 23 - "American Indian: Main", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009. 24 - "Geologic Time: Main", Encyclopedia Britannica.

Accessed April 2009. 25 - "Mesolithic Period (prehistoric period): Main", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 2009. 26 - "Bronze Age", Encarta. Accessed April 2009. 27 - "Steel: History » Primary steelmaking » Early iron and steel", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 2009. 28 - "History of Europe: The Metal Ages", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 2009. 29 - "City", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 2009. 30 - "Paleolithic Art", Encarta. Accessed April 2009. 31 - "Anthropology: The major branches of anthropology » Cultural anthropology", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 2009. 32 - "Southern Africa", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 2009. 33 - "Pre-Columbian Civilization", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 2009. 34 - "Africa", Encarta 2004. 35 - "Central Africa", Encyclopedia Britannica.

Accessed November 2009. 36 - "Homo habilis", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed November 2009. 37 - "Human evolution", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed November 2009. 38 - "Southern Africa", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed January 209. 39 - "Copper Processing", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed January 209. 40 - "Europe", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed January 209. 41 - "Cranial capacity", Wikipedia. Accessed February 209. 42 - "Human evolution", Wikipedia. Accessed February 209. 43 - "Homo erectus", Encarta 2004. 44 - "Archaic culture", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 209. 45 - "Neolithic period", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 209. 46 - "Native American", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 209. 47 - "South Africa", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 209. 48 - "Primitive culture", Encyclopedia Britannica.

Accessed June 209. 49 - "Native Americans of Middle and South America", Encarta 2004. 50 - "History of technology", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 209. 51 - "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies", Jared Diamond. W. W. Norton & Company, 2005. 52 - "Hand tool: smelting", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 209. 53 - "Big Bang Model", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 209. 54 - "Solar System", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 209. 55 - "Life", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 209. 56 - "Homo sapiens", Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 209. A - "A Short History of the World", John M. Roberts. K - "History: The Definitive Visual Guide", Adam Hart-Davis. © 2008-2013 ephemeris.com Early History of Astronomy - Prehistoric Prehistoric Ages.

Since ancient times, man has gazed up at the stars at night. Since prehistoric times, man has observed the phases of the Moon during the lunar month, and the passage of the Sun during the solar year. Stone Age cave paintings still exist that show the phases of the Moon. Some bodies moved faster in the night sky than the surrounding stars. These were the planets visible to the unaided eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The word "planet" comes from the Greek word "planetes," which means "nomad" (wanderer, traveler). To the Babylonians and Sumerians before them, the planets were "stray sheep." The image at left shows our planet, the Earth, and the Moon viewed from Nasa's Mars Global Surveyor. The prehistoric ages date back to the Paleolithic (Early Stone) Age, which lasted from the first appearance of man to the end of the last Ice Age around 10,000 B.C.E. Neanderthal Man and Homo Erectus existed until about 30,000 B.C.E.

The final period of the Paleolithic Age after this, during which only Homo Sapiens existed, is called the Upper Paleolithic or the Late Paleolithic Age. The last Ice Age began about 125,000 years ago. The Last Glacial Maximum, when the Earth's ice cover was greatest, occurred about 15,000 BCE. Between 15,000 BCE and 5,000 BCE, most of the world's glaciers melted. This created new habitable land, while the sea reclaimed former beaches and even valleys. Massive earthquakes and volcanic activity during this time caused great upheavals around the world. Myths of great floods occur in many of the world's cultures. Today, by examining sediment deposits and other clues, geologists have identified three times during the end of the Ice Age when massive ocean floods occurred in different parts of the world: approximately 13,000 BCE, 9,000 BCE, and 6,000 BCE. Cave paintings still exist in a few parts of the world dating back to the last Ice Age in the Upper Paleolithic Age, notably the cave paintings at Lascaux and surrounding areas.

There was a transition from the Paleolithic Age to the Mesolithic (Middle Stone) Age around 11,000-9,000 B.C.E. During this time, man began to domesticate animals and live a more settled life. The Mesolithic Age transitioned to the Neolithic (New Stone) Age, which spanned approximately 8,000-5,500 B.C.E. During the Neolithic Age, man began to grow crops of plants. This meant an end to a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. To live near crops, man had to build homes. These homes were often built together in vilages. There are traces of an ancient Mother Goddess of Anatolia, "Cybele," from Cayanu (now Eastern Turkey) dating to ca. 7,000 B.C.E. From Paleolithic to Neolithic times, man used stone tools. In following ages, man learned to work metal to make tools and weapons useful in agriculture, hunting, and war. The easiest metal to work was pliable copper. In the Calolithic (Copper Stone) Age, 5500-3000 B.C.E.

man began to make tools from copper. The use of copper also encouraged trade for copper (and later other metals). This sent traders traveling far and wide. Expanding trade brought distant cultures in contact with each other throughout Europe, Asia Minor, and Africa. This trade also might have brought rise to early writing. Some of the earliest clay writings in Mesopotamia contain Sumerian loan records. Traders also found that another metal, tin, could be melted with copper to form bronze. This discovery ushered in the Bronze Age, lasting from about 3000-1200 B.C.E. Copper and tin are both soft metals, but the bronze alloy they form is much harder. Bronze therefore made far better tools and weapons than either tin or copper alone. Traders also came to sell valuable gold and silver during the Bronze Age. Cities in Europe and Asia Minor contained increasing wealth during this Age, and a growing number of fortified towns developed, with walls protecting them from attack. The Iron Age followed the Bronze Age, as man learned to work iron. By the time of the Iron Age, the extensive spread of trade had brought about the need for record keeping, which brought about formal writing.

These written records preserved ancient histories for the ages, bringing an end to prehistoric times. Our ancient ancestors pondered the motions of the heavens. They wondered what the stars and planets could be. Some ancient societies discovered the cycles of motion of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars. They made these observations for many generations. Some made astronomical observations so accurately that they were able to predict eclipses of the Sun and Moon. A total eclipse of the Sun is shown in a NASA photograph at the left, taken by the Apollo 12 crew during their return flight to Earth. To most ancients, eclipses were bad omens. Ancient astronomers recorded positions of the planets relative to the stars. They saw that the planets moved relative to the stars. The brightest stars were the easiest to spot. Stars of the first magnitude have been used for comparison since at least the days of ancient Babylon and probably long before then. Those stars are Aldebaran, Antares, Pollux, Regulus, and Spica. The Babylonians and others recorded two of these stars, Aldebaran (in Taurus) and Antares (in Scorpius), as exactly opposite each other and in the middle of their respective signs.

They also recorded Spica (in Virgo) at or 1° distant from the middle of the Zodiac. Later, the Greek Astronomer Ptolemy (see below) combined his observations with those of his predecessor, Hipparchus, and defined the beginning of the Zodiac that became the standard among Western astronomers for almost 2000 years. They both drew upon observations recorded in Babylon, Egypt, and surrounding areas of the world. BBC - Wales - History - Themes - Chapter one: Prehistoric Wales Chapter one: Prehistoric Wales 1: Prehistoric Wales The earliest inhabitants The earliest evidence of human beings in Wales dates from about 225,000 BC, the date given to human teeth found in Pontnewydd Cave in the Elwy Valley in Denbighshire. A series of Ice Ages meant that Wales was devoid of inhabitants during most of the subsequent millennia. The most significant evidence of the presence in Wales of Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age people is the burial discovered in Paviland Cave in Gower. The bones were assumed to be those of a female and, as they had been coloured with red ochre, the skeleton became known as that of the Red Lady of Paviland.

The skeleton is now known to be that of a young man and to date from about 24,000 BC. It represents the earliest example in Britain of a ritual burial. The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age (10000-4000 BC) Continuous settlement of Wales by human beings began with the end of the latest Ice Age in about 9,000 BC. The melting of the ice cap caused sea levels to rise. Britain became an island and by about 5000 BC Wales had attained roughly the shape it has today. As the temperature rose, the country became covered by a thick canopy of trees, the environment of the sparse Middle Stone Age or Mesolithic communities which inhabited Wales in the millennia following the retreat of the ice. The Neolithic or New Stone Age (4000-2400 BC) The Mesolithic communities lived by hunting and gathering, but from about 4000 BC there is increasing evidence of the existence in Wales of communities sustained by agriculture. These were the communities created by New Stone Age or Neolithic peoples who hacked out clearings for their crops using stone tools.

The most striking monuments of the Neolithic era are the stone chambered tombs or cromlechi. They are proof that Neolithic Wales had a fairly populous society with a considerable degree of organisation. The distribution of the tombs suggests close contact along the western sea routes with Ireland, Brittany and Spain. The most remarkable of the chambered tombs of Wales is Barclodiad y Gawres (the apronful of the giantess) in Anglesey. Several stones within it are decorated with spirals, chevrons and lozenges, the earliest examples of art in Wales. The Bronze Age (2400-700 BC) By about 2400 BC, metal tools were becoming increasingly available. Traditionally, the metal users of the Bronze Age were considered to have been migrants to Britain, and the prehistory of Britain was portrayed in terms of wave after wave of invaders. The present tendency is to stress continuity rather than disruption and to maintain that Wales had received the greater part of its original stock of peoples by 2000 BC - a notion that seems to be confirmed by genetic studies. The standard of Bronze Age metalwork could be astonishingly high.

Particularly magnificent is the cape discovered in Mold in 1833; believed to date from about 1500 BC, it was beaten out of a single nugget of gold. The most intriguing aspect of Bronze Age Wales is the link between the Preseli Mountains and the Downs of Wiltshire. Sometime after 2000 CC, a circle of about eighty blue stones, each of them weighing about four tons, were erected at Stonehenge. They are believed to have been quarried from the rock of the Preseli Mountains. There has been has been much speculation about the way they were transported to the Wiltshire Downs, and about the motivation of those who transported them. The Iron Age (700 BC-AD 48) The earliest iron object discovered in Wales is a sword made in about 600 BC which had been thrown into the waters of Llyn Fawr above the Rhondda. Iron ore is the most common of the earth's ores and, once the process of smelting the ore was discovered, an almost inexhaustible source for the making of tools, weapons and equipment was available.

The most characteristic construction of the Iron Age was the hill fort, of which Wales has over six hundred. Some of the largest of them contained streets of houses, proof that in the later prehistoric centuries the economy of some parts of Wales was capable of sustaining communities that bordered upon being urban. 1000+ images about Prehistory for Kids on Pinterest | Caves, Human evolution and Timeline Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Prehistory for Kids Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, archaeology, flint weapons, bone and stone carvings, natural pigments, cave paintings, metal weapons, hunter gathers, the development of farming, the first settlements, homes and Stonehenge. See also Paleontology for Kids and Celts for Kids. 133 Pins847 Followers

Question: In the pre-history of man, what age followed the Bronze Age?
Answer: Iron Age